Labor Day Weekend is upon us and, true to the American work ethic, core to the holiday is labor. But instead of laboring on someone else’s behalf, many Americans choose to labor on their own behalf…generally on their very own piece of the American dream. Making home improvements to either address problems like repairing bathroom grout or organizing a garage or more rewarding endeavors like building a Japanese meditation garden or a installing a dog run for an adorable new puppy.
According to real estate experts, epic home improvement weekends including visits to big box stores like
Given the proliferations of work-at-home employment, it’s surprising to see that home offices are among the very worst home improvement ROIs, with 48.9% on a $28k investment according to Remodeling Magazine’s 2014 Cost vs. Value Report. That’s right…investing in a home office could actually cost you $13,700 at resale, not to mention the construction noises, drywall dust and contractor calls. An alternative might be to buy yourself a pile of gift cards for infinite lattes and your very own leather chair to plunk in the corner of your favorite
But if the very best investment returns even money, perhaps Labor Day weekend is better spent drinking union-made beer and playing (or watching) baseball. If your piece of the American dream is in need of a spit shine, instead of improving it, perhaps you would be better served to find an entirely new home. Supply is up—there is now a 6-month supply of new-homes available in July, according to a report issued by the U.S. Census issued yesterday. But you don't even need to be limited to someone else’s vision of your American Dream because it’s never been easier to build your own.
Decisions of home improvement vs. purchasing a new home vs. building a new one is top of mind for many Northern Californians after our 6.1 earthquake at 3:28 am on Sunday, August 24. With the epicenter in American Canyon in Napa County, damage radiated outward to the towns of Napa, Yountville, Sonoma, Temelec, El Verano, and surrounding countryside.
Always sought-after real estate, the affected property includes homes with a tremendous range in value. Ron Sebahar of Hill Co. Realtors in San Francisco estimated the average building cost of properties affected by Sunday’s earthquake at $419.31 per square foot based on MLS sales. Parenthetically, included in the affected territory is the villa of recently deceased Robin Williams, whose 640 acres crossed both Napa and Sonoma Counties and has been on the market for some time, most recently at an asking price of $29.9million translates to a with a cost of $1,481 per square foot.
Hope, like good wine, springs eternal in Northern California. And the wealthy live by Warren Buffett’s maxim that when others are fearful (like the skittish tend to be after a natural disaster), be brave. Bart Moore, Napa Valley realtor, found that on Sunday all his firm’s scheduled viewing appointments of high-end real estate went as planned. “In fact, our selling agents provided reports to the listing agents of any earthquake damage to the properties,” Moore said. “Clients were not deterred in their search for a wine country home.”
A new option to buying already-built homes that may or may not have suffered the tolls of a natural disaster is a variant of custom construction, broadening access of near-custom homes to a far wider audience. Finding and hiring an architect was once thought to be limited to the one percent, making planning and building a dream home just that…a dream. But a hybrid approach where thousands and thousands of every imaginable houseplan can be accessed online for a fraction of the cost of custom plans is now available. Sources like Houseplans.com allow inventory to be searched to consider factors like lot size, shape, characteristics combined with virtually any style of home, from Adobe to Victorian to Colonial to French Country. Beyond selecting parameters and style, with sources like Houseplans, users can make nearly infinite customizations and get consultation services through the entire building process if they choose. If one were to enlist this sort of approach in the post-earthquake territory, building costs could be less than half of the estimated average of $419. Houseplans CEO Jamie Roche cautions that building customization means numbers will change based on finishes, property variables, etc. but the larger point is that dramatic savings can be achieved when builders start with ready-made plans from top-tier architects, resulting in a well-designed homes in wine country for roughly $200 per square foot.
For the residents of Northern California affected by Sunday’s earthquake, Labor Day Weekend will most certainly include plenty of labor and the Napa Home Depot on Soscol Road is sure to be extremely busy, even by Labor Day weekend standards. Maybe while some of those nice people are sweeping up the post-earthquake mess, they’ll be planning the purchase of new homes, or perhaps visualizing building something precisely to suit, at a surprisingly affordable price and with the option of seismic upgrades.
